Research with impact: SOEST experts engage lawmakers, public on key issues

Torri Research Group shared their research and impacts at the UH Research at the Legislature Day 2025

SOEST students, researchers, faculty and staff joined many others from University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa to highlight their work addressing some of the state’s most pressing issues at the third annual UH Mānoa Research Day at the Hawaiʻi State Capitol on February 4.

The event provided lawmakers and the public an opportunity to engage with research projects focused on extreme weather, sustainable fisheries, coastal contaminants, advances in refrigerant technology, and much more. The event featured more than 100 participants presenting their work through informational tables, interactive displays, and presentations

“We’re bringing the campus, bringing the research to them so as they step out of their hearings, they can come and see all the awesome and exciting research that we’re doing,” UH Mānoa Interim Vice Provost for Research and Scholarship Christopher Sabine said.

“It’s awesome. This is really what I enjoy most about being the higher education committee chair—support our local students, support UH, make sure that all this great work that’s being done is showcased for the public and for us legislators, as well,” said State Rep. and House Higher Education Chair Andrew Takuya Garrett.

Themed “UH Mānoa Research and Creative Works for the Wellbeing of Current and Future Generations,” the event featured informational tables, interactive displays and presentations.

SOEST Research Highlighted

Atmospheric Sciences professor Giuseppe Torri and his students, who focus on the science of extreme weather, participated in the event and shared their research that hopefully leads to solutions in community planning and other weather-related emergencies.

“We do a lot of really awesome research to try to improve lives here in Hawaii. We want people to know what we do and take it seriously, and fund us hopefully so that we can keep doing the work, keep saving lives, keep doing what we do,” Matt Miller, Atmospheric Sciences graduate student, shared with Hawai’i News Now reporters.

When asked by Hawai’i News Now about changes to grants and federal funds looming under the new presidential administration, Hawai’i Sea Grant researcher Lauryn Hansen replied, “I can’t speak to the future too much. I know that at this point we are just continuing our work and hoping for the best. The areas I know that I work most closely with are the EPA, because they do the framework for the contaminants of emerging concern, so that is the only thing that ill be looking at more closely to see if theres any changes in regulations.”

Atmospheric Sciences professor Christina Karamperidou and colleagues history professor Kieko Matteson and Jennifer Pagala Barnett with the SEED Office spread the word about EARTH: Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub, a NSF-funded Engineering Research Center comprised of an interdisciplinary team of researchers from UH and five other U.S. universities.

Integrating science, social science, business, industry, and workforce development, the EARTH project seeks innovative and solution-driven approaches to recycling and repurposing hydrofluorocarbons — highly potent greenhouse gases used in heating, ventilation and air conditioning — and to develop safe, sustainable and affordable approaches to cooling and refrigeration.

UH Mānoa Provost Michael Bruno added, “We want the lawmakers, all the folks who work down here at the Capitol to better understand the impact of the work that we do, the impact to our communities, the places and the people that we love here in Hawaiʻi.”

UH Mānoa, recognized as one of the nation’s top research institutions, continues to lead in research and development expenditures. The university also received a record $464.9 million in extramural funding in fiscal year 2023–24, contributing to the UH System’s all-time high of $615.7 million. With a Carnegie R1 designation for highest research activity, UH Mānoa is one of only four U.S. institutions with land, sea, space and sun grant status.

Read also on UH News and Hawai’i News Now.